Wolf Kahn : The City as Landscape

WOLF KAHN THE CITY AS LANDSCAPE

AMERINGER M c E N E RY YO H E

525 West 22nd Street New York, NY 10011 tel 212 445 0051 www.amy-nyc.com

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THE CITY AS LANDSCAPE As a painter, I have gotten into the habit of using daily walks as a springboard for finding subject matter. For a landscape painter, this happens most often in the warmer seasons. However, my walking occurs most regularly between my home and studio, a mile or so every morning and then back again in the evenings, when the air is crisp and I am wearing a scarf. One finds inspiration with every step and on every corner. The melding of buildings, streets and vegetation provides a constant source of imagery. The changes in the quality of light astonish the eye, and the dazzling shift of scale between avenues and streets is an ever-stimulating variation of intimacy and grandeur.

To a searching eye, an apartment building rising behind a screen of trees in Gramercy Park appears as a contrasting texture amid the foliage, while the Empire State Building, as seen through the window overlooking the pastel table in my studio, rises grandly above its surroundings as a monumental apparition around which the city slowly recedes into a blue haze. As one’s normal vision tends toward the conventional, an artist’s obligation is to press beyond the ordinary.

I owe a great debt to the Impressionists, but an equal one to early American modernists. The breadth of these influences may be due to my European origins. However, inspiration comes even more from the changes in the seasons, the hours in the day, and one’s available enthusiasm. Such stimulation offers a catalog of visual pleasures, a catalog that is so richly provided by New York, the city of cities.

Wolf Kahn New York City March, 2012

Tower (detail), 2012, Oil on canvas, 23 x 16 inches

On the Far West Side, 1954 Pastel on paper 10 x 13 inches

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Stuyvesant Park, 1967 Pastel on paper 12 x 18 inches

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Early Pastel of St. George’s Church, NY, 1969 Pastel on paper 14 x 17 inches

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Over the Tops of Trees at Stuyvesant Park, 2003 Pastel on paper 12 x 12 inches

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Across Stuyvesant Park, NYC, 2003 Pastel on paper 14 x 11 inches

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Stuyvesant Park Bared of Trees, 2003 Pastel on paper 12 x 18 inches

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Across the Nearby Park, 2003 Pastel on paper 14 x 18 inches

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Street Trees, 2004 Pastel on paper 12 x 9 inches

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Evening Over Gramercy Park, 2007 Pastel on paper 14 x 11 inches

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Across the Middle of Stuyvesant Park, 2008 Pastel on paper 11 x 14 inches

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From Riverside Drive Park, 2008 Pastel on paper 11 x 14 inches

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In Stuyvesant Park, 2008 Pastel on paper 12 x 9 inches

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Tower, 2009 Pastel on paper 14 x 11 inches

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Looking Down the Street in New York, 2010 Pastel on paper 21 x 17 inches

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Across the Park, 2009 Oil on canvas 26 x 32 inches

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Stuyvesant Square (Almost Square), 2004 Oil on canvas 16 x 18 inches

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Overlooking the Park, 2003 Oil on canvas 24 x 20 inches

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Stuyvesant Park (NYC) in Winter, 2003 Oil on canvas 42 x 32 inches

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Small Gramercy Park Painting, 2008 Oil on canvas 18 x 20 inches

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Gramercy Park in October, 2007 Oil on canvas 22 x 30 inches

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Gramercy Park, 2008 Oil on canvas 43 x 72 inches

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Silvery Tower, 2012 Oil on canvas 30 x 16 inches

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Tower, 2012 Oil on canvas 23 x 16 inches

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Empire State, 2008 Oil on canvas 52 x 36 inches

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AMERINGER M c E N E RY YO H E

Published on the occasion of the exhibition

WOLF KAHN THE CITY AS LANDSCAPE 12 July – 17 August 2012 Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe 525 West 22nd Street New York, NY 10011 tel: 212 445 0051 www.amy-nyc.com www.wolfkahn.com Publication © 2011 Ameringer | McEnery | Yohe All rights reserved Catalogue designed by Hannah Alderfer, HHA Design Printed and bound in Canada Photography: Carlin Mayer ISBN: 978-0-9850184-1-2